


don't make sense without you

by clean



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: 0 feet apart cause theyre kinda gay, Episode: s02e14 Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Hills Have Eyes, M/M, chilling in the forest, two bros - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-09
Updated: 2018-05-09
Packaged: 2019-05-04 08:41:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14589249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clean/pseuds/clean
Summary: “Should be amazing that we're all so close. But sometimes it—terrifies me.”





	don't make sense without you

“Did you know that Betty and Veronica kissed?”

Archie furrows his eyebrows. “What? What are you talking about?” he asks, incredulous. Jughead plays with the cap of the water bottle.

“Apparently, first week of school. During cheerleading try-outs,” he says, tossing the bottle to Archie. “B and V kissed.”

Archie grins, unscrewing the cap. “Really?” Jughead lets out a noncommittal sound, supposedly of agreement. “Why?” Jughead smiles back, making a movement with his hands that vaguely resembles the shrug emoticon ( _¯\\_(ツ)_/¯_ ).

“I couldn't tell you. Betty tried explaining it last night, but the rationale still eludes me.”

Archie looks down. Inhales deeply. Clenches his jaw.

“Jug… about me kissing Betty.” Jughead looks up into Archie’s eyes, full of hazel and sincerity. “There's really no good excuse.” He hesitates, as if contemplating whether it’s worth saying. “I’m sorry.”

Jughead nods slightly. “It’s okay. Admittedly, this is all,” he pauses, “—way more complicated than any of us could have planned.”

Archie looks confused. “What is?” he asks.

“Take you and me, for example. I'm your best guy friend, right? And Betty is your best girl friend.” He doesn’t even wait for Archie’s response, which Archie loves—he’s so sure of their friendship. “So your best friends are dating. But B and V are also best friends,” he continues, almost on the verge of what—crying? Laughing? “So, your best friend's girlfriend is also your girlfriend's best friend.” Archie looks like he needs to take an entire bottle of Ibuprofen. “You understand what I'm trying to say?” he finishes, exhaling with a smile slowly coming to his face.

“Uh, no, not really,” Archie laughs.

“Should be amazing that we're all so close. But sometimes it—terrifies me.” Jughead sighs, and Archie looks back up at him. “It's like the four of us are in a powder keg,” he continues, more serious now. “All it would take is one match, and we'd all blow up,” he finishes, contemplative.

Archie nods. He gets it now—gets how he felt watching Jughead and Veronica kiss. _That_ was a way smaller explosion than what could potentially happen between the four of them, but on a smaller scale, he understands the feeling of being about to explode.

“I,” Jughead starts, “I—I think we should kiss.”

 _“What?”_ Archie asks. There’s a little too much tension in the air at the moment. _Sexual tension,_ his brain tells him unhelpfully. _Thanks,_ he tells his brain right back.

“I mean, we’re the only ones left. Might as well do it earlier than later,” Jughead shrugs for a second time. “It doesn’t mean anything, right? Just like Veronica and I. For fun. We’ll definitely be closer because of it,” he says with a wink. He gets up from his tree stump and while five feet was a mildly uncomfortable distance apart, zero feet is even more uncomfortable.  
Except it’s _not._ Jughead sits on his lap and it’s possibly the most enjoyable thing Archie has experienced this whole trip ( _Sorry Ronnie, and God,_ he prays silently). He sets his water bottle down on the forest floor.

“Okay,” Jughead says, placing his arms over Archie’s shoulders. “Are we going to do this or not?”

 _In, out._ He’s so close that Archie can feel him breathing against his lips. _Be a man and make the first move,_ his stupid brain says. _What the fuck?_ he says back.

But he does. Archie leans in and while he is the one who initiates the kiss, Jughead takes it as his responsibility to do all the work, pulling Archie against his whole body by the head, pressing their lips together somehow hard yet soft at the same time.

 _Man up, Archie!_ his brain tells him, and for once he listens. He isn’t going to let Jughead control this whole kiss—he had seen how dominant Veronica was to him the night before. There was no way this wasn’t an act, that Jughead just wants to show off how good at kissing he is. Which he is. But fuck it if Archie isn’t going to show him who exactly is in control here.

One of his hands slips from Jughead’s waist ( _When did that get there?_ ) down to his thigh, and the other moves up to hold his chin in place as he kisses him. Jughead gasps, his hand tangling in and pulling at Archie’s hair (which hurts, but god damn it if he’s ever going to _tell_ him that, because it’s also really hot), and God, he really isn’t anything like Ronnie—Archie doesn’t know why he ever compared them. Ronnie is soft, pushy but soft, always pretending to try and take dominance and becoming pliable and compliant a second later. Kissing Jughead is the same thing he had felt in the passenger seat as they competed in that road race, the rush of adrenaline going straight to his brain.

They break apart for just a second and seem to realize the gravity of what they were doing. Jughead quickly stands up and brushes himself off, as if he can somehow brush off Archie’s fingerprints all over him. Archie stands up as well.

“We should head back to the cabin,” Jughead says, clearing his throat. Archie nods. They start to walk back silently, the only sounds being the ones of the forest—birds singing, the light wind rattling through the trees, and the dry leaves and branches crackling under their feet.

“We—we’re not going to talk about this, are we?” Archie asks, after they’ve been trudging uphill in silence for a few minutes that felt much longer.

“I mean, not unless you want to,” Jughead shrugs for the third time. It’s definitely what he’s picking up as his new “thing”, Archie notes.

“Maybe not now,” Archie says, “but maybe sometime in the future we should talk about it,” he relents.

“I enjoyed it,” Jughead admits unashamedly. He smiles at Archie. “We should do it again sometime,” he says with a wink, which is unlike the Jughead that Archie knew as a kid, but not completely unattractive (no, not like _that_ ) as part of the “new” Jughead. (Okay, maybe a _little_ like that.)

“Can’t say I disagree,” Archie replies. Jughead presses a kiss to his jaw and winks again, and they continue their walk back up to the cabin without another word.

**Author's Note:**

> two bros just talkin about kissing huh? that's kinda gay. also this is just. 2 high school boys being stupid. i have experience. source: am high school boy. am gay and stupid.
> 
> title from: miserable america - kevin abstract
> 
> tumblr: @reputationmagazine (send me jarchie prompts plz)


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